BETTER LATE THAN NEVER: Jeff Bezos’s Rocket Engine Nears Debut, Ending US Reliance on Russia.

Blue Origin predicted in 2014 that its BE-4 engine would be ready by 2017 to launch the new Vulcan rocket built by the United Launch Alliance, a joint venture of top Pentagon contractors Boeing Co. and Lockheed Martin Corp. But the Government Accountability Office as recently as June cited “continued technical challenges in developing a US-produced rocket engine.”

Now, the US Space Force is expressing optimism, saying in a statement that “Vulcan launch system development activities continue to make progress” toward a first test launch by December because “ULA and Blue Origin have completed originally planned BE-4 development testing, and have successfully demonstrated full engine performance.”

Maybe Vulcan will launch before SLS does.